A video appearing to show students harassing two white students in Arizona State University’s “multicultural center” has gone viral on social media. In the video, students off-camera appear to take offense to a laptop sticker reading, “Police Lives Matter,” before demanding the white students leave the multicultural center, proclaiming, “white is not a culture.” In a statement to Breitbart News, ASU wrote: “Differences of opinion are part of the university experience.”
“What did I do wrong?” one of the white students can be heard asking at the beginning of the video, to which a non-white student replies: “You’re offensive. ‘Police lives matter?'”
“You’re making this space uncomfortable,” the student off camera continues. “You’re white. Do you understand what a multicultural space [means]? It means you’re not being centered.”
The student presumably filming the video goes on to claim that “white is not a culture,” before revealing that the video is being filmed at Arizona State University (ASU).
“This is the violence that ASU does, and this is the type of people that they protect,” the student says. “This white man thinks he can take up our space, and this is why we need a multicultural space, because they think they can get away with this shit.”
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Another student present then demands that the white students leave the multicultural center if they “have any consideration for people of color and are marginalized.”
The white students are then told that they have “the whole rest of the campus” to go to, where they can be “centered” — implying that non-white students are not “centered” anywhere on campus, except for inside the school’s multicultural center.
“Every single part of the campus centers you,” the student declared. “This is the only space that you’re not centered, and you’re still trying to center yourself, which is white cis male bullshit.”
“I’m not racist, I’m just studying,” one of the white students replied.
“You are racist, your sticker is racist — you can choose to be a police, I didn’t choose to be black,” the student argues. “You can choose to be a cop, you can choose to kill people with a badge, and you’re protecting that shit, which means that you’re racist.”
From there, the white student says that he is sorry, adding, “I wasn’t trying to offend you guys.”
“I know, but this offends us automatically, because these people kill people like me,” one student claims. “So you’re promoting our murderers.”
Then, the white student, who appears frustrated at this point, stands up and proclaims: “I pay the same fucking tuition as you! I’m working 60 hours a week while going to school, because my parents don’t just give me money!”
The video was posted to Instagram on Thursday, and went viral on social media soon after.
Later, the Twitter account, @libsoftiktok, started a GoFundMe fundraiser for the two college students who were harassed in the video.
Turning Point USA at Arizona State University chapter president Julia Cartwright told Breitbart News, “TPUSA ASU supports and defends every student’s First Amendment right.”
“We stand with the young men who were mistreated while boldly standing for freedom on our campus,” Cartwright added. “We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind. We welcome them to join our movement to bring freedom back to ASU.”
After this article was published, Arizona State University responded to Breitbart News’ request for comment, stating:
The Dean of Students Office is aware of the disagreement between a handful of students that was captured in a video circulated on social media. The Dean of Students Office will be discussing it with all involved. ASU is a community of more than 100,000 people from all 50 states and more than 150 countries. Differences of opinion are part of the university experience. The university expects respectful dialogue between students in all engagements.
Universities across the country enable this type of behavior by establishing what they call “multicultural centers” on their campuses.
Last year, a woman who appeared to be a student at the University of Virginia was caught on video announcing that as a “POC” she felt “uncomfortable” at the sight of “too many white people” inside the school’s new multicultural center.
In 2019, the editorial board for the student newspaper at Williams College called on the school to implement racially segregated housing in order to make the college “a less harmful place” and become “a more inclusive institution.”
In 2018, students and administrators at American University pushed for “spaces” on campus designated for “students of color,” claiming that it will promote diversity and inclusion at the university.
Update — Added Arizona State University’s response to Breitbart News’ request to comment which was received after publication.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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